First Tam Jam a hit with state park officials, Tam Jam 2 coming next year

WHEN THE SOLD-OUT Tam Jam brought rock 'n' roll back to Mount Tamalpais last month, it was the first high-profile rock concert in the Mountain Theater since the Summer of Love in 1967. It now looks like it won't be the last.

The eight-hour show, a benefit for Mount Tamalpais State Park, went so smoothly that park officials have given organizers the green light to start planning a second Tam Jam for next year, with the possibility of making it an annual event, perhaps over two days.

On June 22, a picture-perfect early summer day, a well-behaved crowd of 3,750 filled the 1930s-era stone amphitheater near Tam's East Peak for the inaugural Tam Jam, drawn by the novelty of the occasion and the afternoon's lineup of bands — Galactic, Cake, Nashville's Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue, the Taj Mahal Trio and Marin's Danny Click and the Hell Yeahs.

"From the state parks' perspective, we thought it was very successful," said Supervising Ranger Ryen Goering, noting that rangers wrote one citation for marijuana smoking, but had no other problems.

Tickets for the show, produced by the 100-year-old Tamalpais Conservation Club, were priced at $50 to $100. Because there hadn't been a concert of this magnitude in the Mountain Theater in 46 years, organizers said their main goal was to prove that a rock show was viable in such a remote location at a time of year when the fire danger is high. They weren't sure if it would actually make money, but after a detailed accounting, they ended up in the black, raising $25,000 for the state park.

"We went into this thinking at best we would break even this year," said Tamalpais Conservation Club President Larry Minikes. "We're so pleased that we're able to give money to the park this year."

Because the production team has to bear the expense of bringing the stage, sound system and other infrastructure equipment up the mountain for the show, Executive Producer Michael Nash said it might make more sense financially for the next Tam Jam to be a two-day event.

"It would be fun to do that, but the question is, would we raise sufficiently more money to make it worth the effort?" he said. "If we feel we would, then we'll proceed that way."

A two-day rock extravaganza would be the first on the mountain since the legendary Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on June 10 and 11, 1967, when some 10,000 young rock fans each day overflowed the 4,000-seat Mountain Theater to hear such seminal bands as the Doors, the Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds. Moby Grape, Steve Miller (then a resident of Mill Valley) and Marin's homegrown Sons of Champlin, plus pop and soul acts like Dionne Warwick and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

It was the first outdoor rock festival in history, preceding Woodstock, Altamont and the seminal Monterey Pop Festival just a week later, which overshadowed it, reducing it to a footnote of the hippie era.

"I can't imagine having 20,000 people up there," Goering said. "That amount of people probably denuded the area, creating a resource issue and a law enforcement issue as well."

In its aftermath, state officials formed a citizen commission that established guidelines essentially barring rock concerts with amplified music in the Mountain Theater, officially known as the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater. The only large public productions that have been allowed are the six performances of the annual Mountain Play.

But Tam Jam was evidence that rock fans have learned how to behave at festivals over the decades, and have become better educated about protecting fragile environments like Mount Tamalpais.

"We were initially worried, based on past experiences, but we had less problems with this concert than with the Mountain Play," Goering said.

He was one of seven state park rangers and administrators on the site during the show, including Marin District Superintendent Danita Rodriguez.

"It went very smoothly," she said. "Everybody had a good time. It was well run. Overall, we're very pleased."